Popular
by Lamanth
Summary: ONE SHOT – They say that the years you spend at school are the best of your life, bullshit! High school is hell on earth and some people will do anything to fit in. [KaiHil] [AU]


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Beyblade or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.)

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Summery 

ONE SHOT – Kai/Hil. AU, well I think it is anyway. They say that the years you spend at school are the best of your life, bullshit! High school is hell on earth and some people will do anything to fit in. Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed.

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_Dedi:_ This is dedicated to anyone who didn't/doesn't fit in at school. 'They laughed at me because I was different. I laughed at them because they were all the same.' I can't remember where I found the quote but it's stuck with me.

Lamanth: As always sorry for any bad spelling and if you feel the need to through thing at me please wait until I've hidden behind the sofa kay!?

M**use: **On with the fic!

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_Cuz all of the stars have faded away,  
Just try not to worry you'll see them some day,  
Just take what you need and be on your way,  
And stop crying your heart out,

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Popular

The two shadowy figures lay on blankets staring into the night sky as they'd done so many times before, but this time was different there was a tension hanging in the air that needed to be addressed.

"Have you ever seen a star burn out?" She asked.

"What?" Kai turned his head to face her with a puzzled and slightly irritated expression on his face.

"I asked you if you'd ever seen a star burn out, you know just stop giving off light all of a sudden. Well, have you?" She asked again, still gazing skywards.

"You are such a strange girl Hil." He shook his head at her, there were times when he just couldn't figure out what was going on inside her head.

"You still haven't answered my question." Hilary prompted

"No I haven't." Kai sighed.

"Doesn't that seem a bit strange to you? I mean there are so many of them, you would figure that you might see it happen once in your life." Her voice was lazy and hushed as if she was hypnotised by the heavenly bodies above her.

"Yeah, sure. I guess." He said noncommittally.

"But the problem is that you wouldn't really see it when it happened would you? You'd really be seeing the moment that the last amount of light left the star millions of light-years earlier." Hilary continued, more to herself than to him.

"To the best of my knowledge." Kai said. Glancing over at her he could see the stars reflected him her large ruby eyes.

"You are not strange enough," She said mater-of-factly.

"Should I be offended by that, because I'm not?" He said while he rolled his eyes.

"Not offended, concerned. It seems to me that the people in the world who obsess over normalcy are the most likely to just freak out one day and go on a killing spree." Hilary rambled on unsure of what she was really trying to say.

"You think that I'm going to go nuts and kill people? That's a charming quality in a friend." Kai said off handily.

"Maybe you won't." She shrugged as usual she'd tried and failed to keep her tone neutral.

"Maybe it will be you who goes all Ted Bundy (1) on a whole bunch of regular people. I'm not the one that everyone always says is walking the line between sanity and insanity." Kai quipped back.

"Dancing." Hilary muttered under her breath.

"What? Random much." His irritation was growing, why couldn't she just say what she wanted to say? It had never been a problem before.

"No, I'm not random, you're just slow. You can tell '_everyone_,' whoever they my be, that I'm am not walking the line; I'm dancing on it." She snapped. Truth was that she wasn't dancing or walking on any line, it was just that she didn't fit in at school and that marked her out as an easy target. Hilary was called a freak and a psycho, not because she was but because she was different. And at school different meant dangerous.

"And you are the one concerned about me?" Kai asked, turning his head to look at her sitting beside him.

"Yes, I care about you. It-I'm worried that if you don't show at least some people who you really are, that you'll forget. You never used to worry about what anyone else said or thought. It was so cool being able to tell you anything without the fear of being judged hanging over my head. I miss you, the real you. Not this person you've been trying to be these last few months." Hilary said as she tightly wrapped her arms around her torso.

"You never said any of this before now, you should have." Kai whispered.

Finally she'd got to the heart of what she'd wanted to say! "When? In between classes when you avoid being seen with me? Or better yet at lunch. That prissy little French poodle cheerleader of a girlfriend of yours would just love that."

"It was not my idea to meet you out here in the middle of the night." He bit out at her.

"We used to come here all the time at night. Do you remember why that was?" Hilary mumbled softly.

"Yeah, to get away from…" Kai trailed off.

"The very people you now sit with at lunch." she interjected with a small trace of bitterness in her voice.

"My friends." He sighed.

"Really, what am I?" She made no attempt this time to conceal the pain she felt at his rebuffing of her. She ignored the tickle of the single tear that crept down her cheek, but she did turn so that he could not see it. "Will you at least tell me if it's worth it?"

"What?" Kai questioned even though he knew what she meant.

"Popularity." She spoke so softly that the word was almost inaudible.

"Truth?" He asked as though he didn't know what she'd say next.

"Always." Hilary replied.

"No. It's not." Kai realised that as he said this that it was true, there was not really anything he'd gained from his new social standing. As he thought about it there was a considerable amount that he'd lost, not the least of which being her. Hilary Tatibana, the one person who had always stood by him no matter what, his only constant. A long pause echoed all the things that they'd left unsaid, the crickets chirping in the warm air gave no comfort to either of the. In that silence he finally understood the real reason that she'd asked him here tonight: Nothing would ever be the same between them, this was the end.

Kai reached out to her and placed a hand on her back, "I love you." He was overwhelmed by what had just happened, but determined not to shed the tears in his eyes.

"I know. I love you too." Without so much as a backward glance Hilary pushed herself up off of the blankets and set out at a slow walk across the field, leaving him alone with his popularity.

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(1) If you didn't know Ted Bundy was a serial killer who terrorised the United States between 1974 and 1978. He killed dozens (some suspect as many as 40) of young women and was later executed for his crimes.

Kinda loosely based on something that happened to me at high school. What can I say? I was just never that popular, I think I spoke my mind too much for most peoples liking. Oh well their loss not mine.

Please R and R as I'd love to know what you thought

Big luv see ya

Lamb


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